A Gift From the Spiders
by TheBeanMonster
Summary: The great Mirror of Erised doesn't fascinate Neville at all, infact it creeps him out. But something else, something nice, something strange, something wonderful, catches his eye. Part of my entry to Huffle's Twelve Fics of Christmas Challenge.


This is part of the Twelve Fics of Christmas challenge which has been organised by TheOriginalHufflepuff.

This is based on the 'Mirror' prompt, number two.

All my Twelve Fics will from Neville's point of view.

_I hope you like this one._

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**A Gift From the Spiders**

I think Harry and Ron are the only other students who know it's there because I've heard them discuss it sometimes. They don't know that _I_ know it's there because I haven't told them. It would be sort of hypocritical if I told them I knew about it seeing as I've told off the both of them for sneaking out at night a few times.

I sneak out all the time though.

Mainly to the kitchens.

And to look at the Hufflepuff common room entrance and wondering what their common room was like.

But mainly to the kitchens.

Anyway, I sneaked out this time to look for something different. I was bored with the kitchens and the Hufflepuff common room. It was the night before the Christmas holidays started and I'd just crept out into the common room to look for my Remembrall (which I'd lost and I was scared that I'd turn up at home without it and Gran would get really cross with me for losing it) and I got a litle bit sidetracked. I lie; I got really sidetracked. Sidetracked enough to wander out of the common room and into the dark corridors and into the library and into an un-used classroom. I think I was pretty lucky I wasn't caught out by Filch or Mrs Norris because I'm not exactly one to walk very fast or anything, no matter how nervous I get, I just dawdle about most of the time.

So my dawdling landed me in this old classroom that looked like it hadn't been used in about twenty years. Actually it looked like it hadn't been used since Gran went to Hogwarts. It was really dusty and the chairs had been put on the tables and pushed against the walls and there were tiny cobwebs that looked like fairy floss inbetween the chair legs. The cobwebs were nice in a strange sort of way. I didn't wreck them like most people seem to have a tendancy to do, I just left them hanging there because they looked like little Christmas decorations that the spiders had made in their celebrations for the holiday. Little things like that catch my eye and I ended up just looking at the cobwebs for a while before I studied the rest of the room. Once I tore my eyes away from the cobwebs something else in the room caught my eye. As nice as the cobwebs were, this was alot more interesting. I think the main reason I thought it was interesting was because most classrooms at Hogwarts don't usually have giant mirrors in them. Infact, I don't think any classrooms at Hogwarts have giant mirrors in them. Except for this one of course.

So, being the naturally curious kid that I am, I was drawn to the mirror to have a closer look at it. There was strange writing across the top which I could work out what it said even though the letters were familiar to me. It was strange, which is why I spent a while looking at the writing but having no plans to decipher it. I just looked at it, captured by it's abnormality and it's familiarity. In a few ways, the words and the cobwebs were very much alike, but that's something I just don't have a way of explaining it. I can't really explain why things are that way. I can't really explain anything. Unlike the cobwebs, though, I got bored of the words. I got fidgety and looked somewhere else.

That's when I discovered the Mirror. I had been standing infront of it for close to ten minutes maybe and I hadn't actually noticed it. Well, I had noticed it was a mirror but I didn't actually pay attention to it. I'm guessing the reason I didn't pay attention to it before then was because it wasn't a little, delicate detail of the room, it was a whopping big, obvious part of the room, and when things are like that I hardly ever notice them. Hence the reason it took me so long to realise that there was a great, big mirror infront of me. So when I actually noticed the Mirror I realised that it must be something great. And it was.

It didn't just show me. I thought that was strange; isn't that what mirrors are supposed to do?

My parents stood on either side of me. But their faces didn't look all blank and clueless like they usually did. It's a strange thing to try and explain. If you spent your whole life growing up with parents who didn't even have the slightest idea that you were their son and you only visited them every now and then and every time you saw them they acted as if they were meeting a person they'd never met, then maybe you might have a small understanding. When I looked into the Mirror my parents looked at if they knew who I was. I don't know how, but they did. If you could have seen their faces, the way the just stood there and looked at me and were just there, if you could have seen that then you would know. You would know what I mean.

But I knew I couldn't sit infront of the Mirror forever. For one, Filch would have found me eventually and I would've been in a lot of trouble from not just him but Gran aswell (her and the whole me getting in trouble thing just results in her lecturing me on how my parents never did anything to break rules or anything like that, which is highly unlikely because I know that _everyone_ breaks rules at some stage, and how disappointed she is that I'm not like Dad), two, because I had to go home the next day and I couldn't go home if I was sitting infront of a mirror, and three, because something about the Mirror, as great as it was, made me uncomfortable. It didn't show the future or the past or the present, it didn't show anything but what I really wanted. I was creeped out that the Mirror knew that. It was scary in a way. I didn't feel comfortable knowing that the Mirror knew this about me. It was almost as if it were teasing me or something.

That's why I left. I hated the way the Mirror teased me with something I so desparately want. It was horrible.

So I stood up, turned my back on the Mirror and left the room. I didn't look back at it as I left, instead I looked at the fine, glistening cobwebs between the chair legs. As much as I wanted my parents to know who I was, I knew I couldn't have that and the Mirror couldn't give it to me. But the spiders could give me their strange, little cobwebs and that was, atleast, something nice.

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_Reviews would be very welcome. _:)


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